The Xavier soccer team endured another tough time at the Excaliber Tournament in Santa Ana, Calif., during the recent holiday break.
The results of the tournament for two-time defending state champ Xavier was three losses in three games, but the results didn\\\'t bother coach Barb Chura.

Highland coach Miner Webster is used to winning and winning a lot. But not with his Hawks laboring as much as they have this season.
It happened again Tuesday night as Dobson and a nearly all new cast of characters for the defending state champions pushed Highland to the end in a 67-61 win for the Hawks at Dobson.

Amphitheater and Arcadia would be right at the top of 4A-II schools without displaying boys basketball prowess since their schools begin with A.
The way the schools are playing as January nears its midpoint has them eschewing an alphabetical hierarchy.

The household names for the Corona del Sol boys basketball team are not Rashidi Kabamba, Braden Tennyson and Nick Siefker.
Those names, however, were music to the ears of Aztecs coach Sam Duane Jr. on Thursday night.

A year after winning the 5A-I girls basketball title, Dobson coach Tyler Dumas has nearly gone back to square one. He has ventured to the chalkboad and erased the 2010 lesson. Chiseled out the path for 2011 and perhaps beyond.
The transformation from state champ to building back to that level is gradual. Tha is why Dumas likes the challenge of coaching.

The first basketball experience Kyle Bingham encountered at Mesa Mountain View -- getting cut from the freshman summer team. Bingham had not shown up religiously at open gyms after playing with Poston Junior High as a freshman. That did not bode well for his chances of making the Toros junior varsity once his sophomore year began in the fall of 2008.
Bingham, however, was not overly concerned. As he puts it, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"I have always felt I was meant to play basketball.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"

Pinnacle brought its young, energetic boys basketball team to Mesa High Tuesday and did not look the part of young very much.
The Pioneers, leading most of the game except for brief moments in the second period and at halftime, outplayed the host Jackrabbits and posted a 67-57 win in a 5A non-region game.

The Hamilton girls soccer team ended the 2010 portion of the 2010-2011 season with two invitational titles. Hamilton won the Diablo Classic three weeks ago. And the latest was acquired Friday morning with the Huskies 3-0 victory over Flagstaff to win the Dobson Mustang Soccer Classic at Dobson High.

Oozing with tradition, Archbishop Moeller, Ohio and Mesa Mountain View,were the final matchup of the 2010 VisitMesa.com Basketball Challenge. The teams did not disappoint.
Sporting unbeaten records in the tournament and for the season, the teams gave fans a fitting marquee matchup as Moeller trimmed Mountain View, 36-35, in a classic defensive battle at Toro Gym.

It was an uphill battle all the way for Corona del Sol on Wednesday night in its bid to reach the finals of the McClintock Holiday Shootout. And it took help from more players than usual to make up what once was a 14-point deficit in the second period.
The Aztecs finally took the lead with a little more than four minutes left and hung on to edge Brophy, 53-47, at McClintock High School.

It did not take long for the Visitmesa.com Arizona Basketball Challenge to get going with some tight contests.
St. Marys withstood poor free-throw shooting late in regulation and a technical foul that opened the door for Sunnyslope to tie the game in the final seconds, but the Knights prevailed, 85-78, in double overtime in the first game of Monday\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s first round at Mountain View High School.